The Duduk Comes For You

Freddy correctly identified the musical instrument used in this McCain ad as a duduk, which I find to be one of the most beautiful-sounding instruments in the world, but then I am also a fan of the bagpipes. While the duduk is typically Armenian, it is used along with a host of other instruments in Armenian folk music that are found throughout the Near East and along much of the Mediterranean basin, such as the kamancha, the ud and the like. Armenian and Iranian musical traditions have strongly influenced one another, not only because of the countries’ geographical proximity but also because of the many linguistic, cultural and historical ties between Iran and Armenia that date back into antiquity. The strange thing is that duduk music is not menacing, so it is lousy accompaniment for an attack ad that is supposed to instill fear. Very often, duduk music is very melancholy and sad (as is so much Armenian folk music), which puts it almost entirely at odds with the images used in the video. The ad is part of the last, dying gasp of the McCain campaign, which does not even seem to know how to instill fear properly anymore.

P.S. I have to thank the McCain campaign. They may be absolutely terrible in putting together effective advertisements, but they have inspired me to spend more time brushing up on my Armenian. Apren!

There’s this small early music festival called Montelbane we’ve been to a couple of times, not too far from Leipzig, in a town called Freyburg am Unstrut. It’s a little three day affair, in a small church, run by some folks in a group called Ioculatores. This year they had a group from Armenia, led by someone named Gevorg Dabaghyan playing the Duduk. It was astonishing. If only Coltrane could have heard this music. In fact, maybe he did–all I could think of through the entire set was “Coltrane would have LOVED this.” I haven’t seen the ad (we’re spared this sort of thing here in London), but this was very lively, almost free form music–lots of improvisation. He had to have been in his 60s, and he just wailed.

The strange thing is that duduk music is not menacing, so it is lousy accompaniment for an attack ad that is supposed to instill fear.

I don’t find it menacing, either. But either the dudek or something that produces a similar sound/feeling may be the go-to instrument when a movie wants to say, “Oh, things may be pretty low-key right now, but in about 10 seconds we’re going to see Arabs and/or Muslims behaving badly.”

My recollection is that there’s a very similar sound at the beginning of Black Hawk Down, while we’re seeing images of famine and reading a canned history of contemporary Somalia. Then the drums kick in and we see militiamen gunning down starving civilians at a Red Cross food depot.

So, if this is an instrument that movie-makers use to say, “Watch out–scary Muslims are about to make their move!” I can see why McCain’s people put it in an ad attacking Obama’s supposed positions on the Middle East. And, I suppose, there might be the added bonus of once again implying that Obama himself is an ominous foreign presence in America.

Hereâ€™s my question: what sort of campaign puts out the â€œPreconditionsâ€ ad and then, just a few days later, puts out this ad

Building off of that “Obama ‘endorses’ McCain” spot, the McCain campaign’s next ad will accuse Obama of associating with a dangerous hothead whose irrationality and aggression pose a grave threat to America’s interests in the Middle East and the world. “How can you trust Barack Obama when he pals around with dangerous radicals like John McCain? I’m John McCain and I approve this message!”